Little Boat and the Lamp. ®.

Little Boat and the Lamp. ®.

Paper Tale.

Fantasy Story

Jorge Ofitas

The author imagined it on a puddle to distract someone's gaze, only that. However, that little boat wanted to sail. Possessing the same imagination as its creator, it dreamed of sailing great seas and discovering beautiful and heroic adventures, never for a moment supposing it was just a simple paper boat wanting to sail on a puddle of water.

At the very top of its paper sail, it carried a miniature lamp, an exact replica of the lamp that illuminated the desk of the dreaming poet who let it set sail. And of course, the author thought the little boat would need a good lamp to light the darkness of the waters at night…

The first thing the little boat would do was recruit a crew; as I say, its creator never supposed that little boat had anything else to do but sail the puddle of illusion, so the paper boat still didn’t know that it didn’t know that it couldn’t sail.

However, there were other beautiful things in that puddle. Flying little flowers. A peanut shell that served as a small boat. The Sun was reflected in the water, also tiny sparkling beings that jumped to starboard and port, and some green monsters with sleepy toad eyes that were always static and made strange noises while with their tongues they caught some of those tiny fluttering beings in the act and swallowed them. Gigantic mosquitoes also used to land on the little boat; once the little boat was about to capsize when one of the green monsters tried to reach one of these mosquitoes with its extra-long tongue. "What ocean is this? It is certainly full of adventures," the little boat said to itself, which didn’t know that it couldn’t sail…

One day the writer remembered the little boat and moved it to another chapter where he turned it into a beautiful schooner, yes, one of those with sails unfurled that sailed the seas. The paper boat, however, remained the same as always, and even having become a beautiful ship, that little boat was unaware that it didn’t know that it couldn’t sail…

                                        

Suddenly, it heard numerous footsteps and murmurs of sailors. "Hmm," it said to itself. "My dream will come true. It's the crew I asked for." And its entire hull turned happy, receiving those precious Rays of sunlight that looked like human silhouettes in the crystalline bay of its dreams…

Finally, before night fell on the puddle, a child saw the paper boat, picked it up, thus preventing it from sinking, and since it was dry, he unfolded it; now it was just a blank sheet of paper; where years later the same boy who took it out of the puddle would write: The Little Boat and the Lamp. And that little boat sailed.

END

Author of the story: Jorge Ofitas.

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